Monday, February 25, 2013

With the reintroduction of legislation exempting inter-affiliate swaps from regulation under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act, and legislation clarifying the scope of SEC municipal advisor regulation under Section 975 of Dodd-Frank, the contours of a Dodd-Frank corrections bill begin to appear. Both of these pieces of legislation passed the House in the 112th Congress with overwhelming bi-partisan support. And again, in the 113th Congress, these measures are receiving overwhelming support. While thdese and other bi-partisan Dodd-Frank corrections bills died in the Senate in the 112th Congress, it is likely that they will be taken up by the Senate this year.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) presaged this in December of 2012 when he said, in remarks at the Bipatisan Policy Center, that the Senate would take up a bi-partisan Dodd-Frank corrections bill in 2013. A 2500 page piece of legislatikon like Dodd-Frank will be in need of corrections, said Senator Warner, who is a key member of the Banking Committee and a author and co-author of a numberf of Dodd-Frank provisions. In addition, Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Johnson (D-SD) said that the Commitee will consider changes to Dodd-Frank if they have strong and overwhelming bi-partisan support. As more and more bi-partisan bills emerge, such as one codifying the end-user exemption from some Title VII requirements, the momentum for a Dodd-Frank corrections bill will become inexorable and irresistable.